1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to battery chargers that accommodate batteries with differing form factors, and more specifically to electrical and mechanical pocket configurations that are capable of accommodating a plurality of batteries, each battery having a different form factor.
2. Background Art
Electronic devices are becoming more and more prevalent. Everywhere you look, you see people carrying cellular telephones, personal digital assistants, pagers, and two-way radios. While these devices make everyday life more convenient, one drawback to these devices is that they each seem to employ a different battery having a different set of electrical contacts and a different mechanical shape, or xe2x80x9cform factorxe2x80x9d. Consequently, each device, or each battery, must be coupled to a different charger or power supply.
Additionally, in the case of cellular telephones, the demand for cellular phone talk time appears to be outpacing the development in energy storage capacity of electrochemical cells. In other words, people are demanding more energy from a phone in a day than can be delivered by a single cell. For example, with recent declines in cellular telephone rates, some people talk on cellular telephones for five or more hours per day. This demand is present even though a typical cellular telephone battery may only offer about three hours of talk time before a recharge is required.
Some cellular phone manufacturers have attempted to reconcile this problem by making auxiliary batteries that have higher capacities than do standard batteries. For example, Motorola manufactures several different size batteries for its ever-popular StarTac Series phone. The highest capacity battery is commonly referred to as the auxiliaryxe2x80x94or xe2x80x9cauxxe2x80x9dxe2x80x94battery. Unfortunately, however, some people do not own a high-capacity, or xe2x80x9cauxxe2x80x9d, battery. They may only own the standard battery.
As manufacturers offer a plurality of battery form factors for the same phone, a charger is required that will accommodate each of the various form factors in a single pocket. The single pocket is desirable because it prevents the design of the charger from becoming bulky and unwieldy.
One such solution to this xe2x80x9cmultiple-battery-single-chargerxe2x80x9d problem is recited in U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,914, assigned to Motorola, entitled, xe2x80x9cBattery Charger Having Pocket with Multiple Sets of Charger Contacts.xe2x80x9d This solution works well for the batteries recited in the specification, because the aux battery that is used with this charger is capable of standing on its end. Thus, the normal battery may be placed horizontally in one part of the pocket while the aux battery may stand in a separate cavity of the patent.
However, as phones have gotten smaller and smaller, some aux batteries are not able to stand on their ends. Further, some manufacturers now desire to have a charger that is capable of charging batteries for a series of phone models. Such a charger would allow a manufacturer to offer a single charger for all its phones, thereby reducing the cost to the end user.
There is thus a need for an improved charger capable of accommodating batteries with differing form factors.